£4m to kick-start Sarah Point
MANCHESTER’S half-finished Sarah Point residential tower should be completed following a £4m investment by the Homes and Communities Agency.
It has contributed £2.6m to help developer UK Land and Property and construction group Sir Robert McAlpine acquire the site on Great Ancoats Street – idle since 2008 – from the Clydesdale Bank.
A further £1.4m has gone to Adactus Housing for 40 “affordable” flats in the 166-apartment block.
The development was one of a number that was initiated by controversial Iraqi developer Bashar Issa, whose BSC group of companies collapsed in 2008 owing more than £39m to banks and £7m to other creditors.
Work is expected to start on site in early Spring 2013. The HCA previously supported UKLP with a £2.5m cash injection in 2011.
At that point the block was being rebranded as Nuovo, reflecting its position in Ancoats’ Italian Quarter, but those plans also stalled.
